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For the 35th International Congress of Physiological
Sciences held in San Diego March 31-April 5, 2005, a medal commemorating
this auspicious occasion was designed and minted. Why a medal for the
congress? Such an item can stand now and for the future as a commemoration
of the spirit, as well as the content, of a gathering of people from around
the globe, together for formal and informal discussions of new ideas and
scientific findings, as well as strengthening of personal friendships. With
this in mind, sponsoring of such commemorative medals was decided by
organizers of several of the earlier IUPS Congresses, and their
predecessors, the International Physiological Congresses (1).
I have had a long-time interest in, and collection of, medals commemorating
people and events in physiology and related medical and natural sciences,
including all of the previous Physiology Congress medals. So, I naturally
thought of such a memento for the congress to be held in our backyard, San
Diego. About two years before the Congress, I first broached this idea to
Shu Chien, Professor at the San Diego campus of the University of
California, who was Chairman of the Planning Committee for the Congress. I
showed him my collection of previous congress medals. He became quite
enthusiastic about the prospect of such a medal for the San Diego Congress,
and in due time presented this proposal to the Planning Committee, including
Martin Frank. I also had recommended Alex Shagin as designer of the medal.
Shagin, a Santa Monica resident, has won highest honors as a medallic
artist. The proposal was accepted by the Committee, and at one of its
meetings in Los Angeles, Shagin presented his initial design of the medal,
based largely on the already accepted logo of the Congress. Much discussion
ensued, including several suggestions for altering the design. These were
accepted, and the Committee decided that final approval would depend on
their seeing the revised design. Pictures of this were circulated to the
Committee which gave its approval. The medals were produced at The Golden
State Mint (San Bernardino, CA) and were then made available to participants
at the congress and later, through the American Physiological Society, to
any interested persons.
Complete listings and pictures of past IUPS
medals
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